Will exempt compassionate care programs from paying state commercial cannabis taxes when they are providing free medical cannabis to financially disadvantaged people living with serious health conditions. Due to an oversight in how Prop 64 was drafted, these not-for-profit donation programs that have been serving medical cannabis patients for decades are now being forced to pay taxes meant for businesses, which are forcing these charity programs to shut down.

Modeled on SB 827 of the last legislative session— this legislation legalizes more housing near job centers and public transportation by overriding hyper-restrictive low-density zoning, while protecting against displacement of renters and vulnerable communities

Sponsored by Equality California and the Los Angeles County District Attorney, SB 145 puts a stop to LGBT young people going on the sex offender registry, when similarly situated young straight people do not

Authorizes pharmacists to furnish pre- and post- exposure prophylaxis (PrEP and PEP) without a physician prescription and also prohibits insurance companies from requiring prior authorizations in order to obtain PrEP coverage

Prohibits the arrest of people involved in sex work when they come forward as a witness or victim of a specified violent and serious crime. It also provides that the possession of condoms may not be used as evidence to arrest someone for engaging in sex work

Transfers the entire 68-acre Cow Palace Property to a local Joint Powers Authority - comprised of Daly City, San Mateo County, and San Francisco - which will have full authority to manage and develop the land with housing and mixed use development and permanently bans gun and ammunition sales at the Cow Palace site

Added by the voters in 1950, Article 34 of the California Constitution requires cities to submit projects to a voter referendum when public funds are allocated to developing low-income rental housing. No other type of housing is subjected to this requirement. This constitutional amendment was designed to keep people of color and poor people out of certain neighborhoods. SB 34 deletes this racist provision from our state constitution. Joint Author with Senator Ben Allen.

Creates a 3-year pilot program allowing San Francisco to implement supervised drug consumption programs, otherwise known as safe injection sites. It is modeled on the bill that Governor Brown vetoed in 2018. Principal co-author with Assemblymember Susan Eggman.

Requires that single-use plastic packaging and products sold or distributed in California be reduced by 75 percent by 2030, in order to reduce the waste and pollution caused by these products. Joint author with Senators Ben Allen and Nancy Skinner.

Creates a streamlined approval process for housing when cities are not meeting the housing creation goals required by the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), which will expedite the construction of affordable housing.

Makes it safer and simpler for cannabis business owners to pay state fees and taxes, which will encourage compliance with state laws and provide support for business owners. The lack of banking access for cannabis businesses results in a growing industry that is cash-based, lacks transparency, and is susceptible to public safety challenges, including violent crime. Passed as part of Budget Trailer Bill.

Updates California criminal law to approach transmission of HIV in the same way as transmission of other serious communicable diseases. It also brings California statutes up to date with the current understanding of HIV prevention, treatment and transmission to reduce stigma around HIV and improve public health outcomes.

Provides enhanced protections for CalFresh recipients when, through no fault of their own, they receive more benefit then they are supposed to receive through overissuances, and improves the cost-effectiveness of the CalFresh program.

Creates a tiered system that will make the sex offender registry a more effective tool for law enforcement to investigate sex crimes. Supported by law enforcement officials, criminal justice organizations, and sexual assaults victims right groups.

Directs CalRecycle to create five mobile recycling pilot programs throughout the state, which will allow cities like San Francisco to pursue a mobile recycling redemption program. Under SB 458, these mobile recycling programs will qualify as full recycling centers under California law, thus relieving surrounding small grocery stores of the onerous obligation of having to accept recycling for redemption.

Creates the Energy Storage Initiative to provide rebates to electricity customers for the installation of home and business energy storage systems, which allow solar energy to be stored and used throughout the day and night.

Protects immigrants from irrelevant disclosures of their immigration status in open court by requiring that any discussion or questioning about the immigration status of any witness, victim, or defendant first be deemed by a judge to be relevant and admissible.

Re-instates the net neutrality protections put in place by the Federal Communications Commission under President Obama in 2015. These protections were repealed by the FCC under President Trump in December 2017.

Creates a clearer, fairer, more data-driven, and more equitable process for how the state and regional bodies assign Regional Housing Needs Assessment numbers to local communities. It does this by requiring a more data-focused, objective process and by creating stronger guardrails, thus reducing the wiggle room jurisdictions use to lower their RHNA allocations.

Designates Lunar New Year as a day of special significance in California and requires the Governor to honor Lunar New Year annually. Also under SB 892, all public schools and educational institutions will be encouraged to conduct exercises recognizing the traditions and cultural significance of the Lunar New Year, the contributions of Asian and Pacific Islander Californians to the state, and any local festivities and celebrations of the occasion. (With Joint Author Richard Pan)

Allows local communities to create on-site water recycling programs by requiring that the State Water Resources Control Board (“State Water Board”) issue comprehensive regulations, including health and safety standards, to help local jurisdictions implement these programs. “On-site” means that the water recycling occurs in individual buildings, as opposed to utility-scale water recycling.

Ensures access to effective, quality early intervention mental health care in counties across the state by requiring a much more structured and focused approach on prevention and early intervention mental health programs funded by the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), which administers the millionaires tax (Prop 63).

Allows San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties more flexibility in expanding the reach of the conservatorship system, modernizing its administration, and assisting individuals who suffer from chronic homelessness, accompanied by debilitating mental illness, severe drug addiction, repeated psychiatric commitments, or excessively frequent use of emergency medical services

Increases the access for Denti-Cal patients with special needs to the dental care they desperately need by giving dentists the funding resources to overcome the unique challenges they face when providing oral services to this population.

Provides greater protection of tenants against discrimination based on immigration status; Landlords may no longer use reporting tenants as leverage for eviction. Principal co-author with Assemblymember David Chiu.

Calls on the medical community to stop performing nonconsensual and often irreparably harmful sex assignment and genital “normalization” surgeries on intersex infants at birth. Instead, medically unnecessary surgery should be delayed until the intersex individual can decide for themselves whether to pursue surgery at all, at an age when informed consent is possible.